Page 4 of Daddy's Little Drummer Boy
She twirled around. “I a princess drummer!”
“Yes, you are, sweet girl.”
The elf to my left cleared his voice and tilted his head to the line to show me she was up next.
“And I think it’s your time to see Santa,” I told her.
That had her dropping the sticks and running up to her spot in line.
“You like your job, don’t you?”
I turned to see a woman standing there, one without a child. In one hand, she held a shopping bag, in the other, a cup of coffee.
“Yeah, I don’t mind it.”
“Do you ever do any side gigs?”
That caught me off guard. I had a feeling she didn’t mean food delivery, but still, the offer was unclear.
“It depends on what you mean.” I was careful with my words. If she meant something Christmas-related, I was possibly interested. If she meant something adult-related, odds were not so good. I hated to be so jaded, but I’d been propositioned by enough people while wearing this outfit here to know it could be either.
“We’re looking for people to dress up for a Christmas party. We have Santa already and a couple of elves too, but I’ve never seen a Little Drummer Boy before.”
I wasn’t sure if, technically, I was allowed to use my costume off-hours, but I was intrigued enough to worry about that later. “I could probably do that, if my schedule works.”
She took out a card and stuck it in my front pocket. “Now, do me a favor and don’t let the name of my job make you think it’s something it’s not.”
Now I was really curious.
“We just want people to be ready for our ‘little’”—she put it in air quotes—“Christmas party.”
And off she went. I didn’t know what the event was, but I sure knew what she meant by little. The odds were good she was talking about Chained, the local club Daddy and I talked about checking out years ago when we had enough money.
Later that night, I reached out to her. The gig was offering great money, a free pass to come back whenever I wanted, and lunch. There was no way I was turning this one down. I’d been little alone for so long that just the day pass was worth doing it for.
Maybe playing with some other littles was exactly what I needed for Christmas. One thing for sure; I was about to find out.
Chapter Four
Nick
As I parked at Chained, I could not get my review out of my mind. Not that I got any negative comments. Rather, Stephanie in HR handed it to me with a beaming smile and lounged in her chair while I read it.
“Someone had a good year,” she commented as I set it back on her desk. “According to this, you’re quite an asset to the company.”
“Mm-hmm.” I didn’t need them to tell me that. My job technically should have involved about a third of the travel I did, but my supervisor knew he could rely on me whenever he had an emergency, which was almost all the time. Although the word had been put out that he left the company for “another opportunity,” rumor had it that he’d been encouraged to go with a little exit bonus. As the nephew of the CFO, he was never going to get dumped without a golden parachute and likely another position in one of their other companies. He’d land on his feet.
And, before leaving, he’d taken the time to pen a glowing review of my work, which should assure me the promotion that would keep my feet on the ground for most of my workdays. I smiled and nodded as Stephanie complimented my work, leading up to the final conclusion. The one I’d been waiting for.
“And that’s why you are getting a 3.5 percent raise at the start of the year.” From her pleasant, expectant expression, she thought I was going to be responding to that comment in a positive way. She could not be more wrong. My hands closed into fists, and I struggled to keep my breathing under control. As long as I did that, I’d be able to get through this meeting without doing anything that might put me on the local news. I wasn’t going to do anything violent to Stephanie, of course. Itwasn’t her fault that I’d been repeatedly lied to. Promised that whenever a position on the level above me opened up, it was mine.
Still…there was a chance that the initial pay for a non-family-member supervisor was 3.5 percent more than I was making presently. Seemed unlikely, but before I did anything like quit or stalk out in a huff, I needed to ask. “Did I or did I not get the promotion I’ve been promised?”
I knew the answer before she said a word. No longer meeting my eyes, she dropped her gaze to the desk. “There is no record of such a promise in your file, but with your reviews, you’re certainly on track to do well here.”
What the hell?
I wanted nothing more than to quit, to tell them to take their job and shove it as the old song went, but saner heads prevailed. I hadn’t spent all these years in business dealing with all sorts of people without learning how to control my temper. “I see. That’s clear, then. How much vacation do I have saved up?”
